Lowe trumps rivals in marathon Thai pitch

Speaking for the first time since winning the Thai account -- estimated by industry sources to provide total billings in excess of US$30 million across all marketing disciplines-- Lowe Thailand chief executive officer Tony Prehn confirmed that the Bangkok office would lead the creative work globally over the next three years of the contract, with other IPG companies involved in the pitch supporting the work. Although technically regarded as a creative pitch, it is believed that Thai Airways selected Lowe Worldwide Bangkok on the strength of its holistic offering through its IPG stablemates. Initiative has been tasked with handling media, while Weber Shandwick (PR), Octagon (sports/special events) and Jack Morton (events) will all assist in formulating respective campaigns over the coming year. "The strategy that we created was a governing brand idea, around which we were then able to leverage all of the IPG companies into their specialist areas of expertise," said Prehn. "As you can see, with the idea of introducing more IPG companies into this, we are diversifying communications channels beyond traditional media." Prehn added there would not be a major shift in strategy for the airline, insisting the plan was to "continue to aggressively market the brand globally". Lowe Worldwide Bangkok already has some creative work in the pipeline for the airline, with the first executions expected to begin rolling out in about two months time. While the creative work is expected to run globally, Prehn conceded there may be adaptions to cater to local languages. Incumbent agency JWT lost out to Lowe Worldwide Bangkok in the final round of presentations of the statutory review, with seven other agencies, including Dentsu and Creative Juice\G1, contenders earlier on in the process. Creative Juice\G1 will continue to handle the airline's domestic brief, after also pitching for the international account. The change in the agency roster follows a challenging and turbulent 2005 for the airline, which experienced lower than expected profit margins. This was coupled with the increasing burden of high jet fuel prices, pressure from low-cost rivals, the Asia tsunami and regional concerns about the impact of avian flu.